"It's a shame. It really is because the tree's been here a long, long time," Matt Lovett said.

The rain was much worse elsewhere in California.

The three-day storm had spared communities a repeat of the deadly debris flows following a deluge earlier this year, it dumped record rainfall in some parts and unleashed flooding that led to dramatic rescues Thursday from Los Angeles in Southern California all the way to Folsom, some 400 miles to the north.